Just as difficult as it is for me to think of the worst movie I’ve ever seen, picking the best can be equally as hard.

When asked, a kaleidoscope of movie scenes washes through my mind: Gene Tierney in “Leave Her to Heaven,” Jane Powell singing in “A Date with Judy” or Van Johnson marching in “Battleground.”

But I always come back to one film.

“Since You Went Away” (1944) is a World War II film that isn’t on the battlefront. It follows a family on the home front.

My favorite time period is the World War II era. One thing that particularly fascinates me about this time is the war effort on the home front-what this film call the “unconquerable fortress”. This movie chronicles life on the home front and daily adjustments Americans went through in order to help soldiers overseas, and there aren’t many films that show this.

But aside from the historical aspect of the film, the actors, camera shots and script make “Since You Went Away” absolutely perfect.

Claudette Colbert stars as Anne Hilton whose husband volunteers to fight during World War II. She and her two daughters Jane, played by Jennifer Jones, and Bridget, played by Shirley Temple, cope with taking in a grumpy boarder, played by Monty Woolley, to make extra money.

I feel like this movie is so natural and believable not just a bunch of Hollywood stars playing roles. No, not everyone’s mother looked like Claudette Colbert but we see a lot of what I think is pretty realistic.

Some scenes that include this realism include:

-A cop pulls Tony and Anne over just to chat, because he doesn’t see cars much since gas rationing.

-Bridget keeps a plant in the sink to make sure it gets water, because her father gave it to her.

-Jane starts off as a silly, boy crazy high school girl and matures throughout the film. Part of it has to do with falling in love with Robert Walker, but another part of it has to do with her work as a nurse and what she sees at the hospital.

-We a see a glimpse of war life as people talk about rationing. There isn’t any ice cream at the soda fountain and instead they have a “Victory Punch,” and we see Bridget sorting scrap metal.

Page 2 of 2 - But along with the realism, there are several beautiful shots and very creative scenes.

There are four scenes in the film where the camera pans through a large crowd and you hear varied conversations and people’s wartime concerns: in a bar, at a canteen dance, on a train to see their father and at a train station saying goodbye to Walker.

Some conversations include:

- “I went shopping before the hoarders got there.”

- “I can’t write everything the baby says down on those little V-cards.”

- Business Man: “If this train keeps stopping like this, I’ll miss the biggest deal of my life.’ Armless Soldier: “Well I’m in no hurry, I’ve got plenty of time from now on”

-“Let me look at your darling so I can picture you always…now go and don’t look back” (Said to two different girls by the same soldier)

I feel some of the camera techniques in this film might compete with Hitchcock. The director took advantage of light and shadows.

This film is two and a half hours so I feel like I could write on and on and on about it forever, but in a nut shell, I adore this film. It’s perfect. The shots, the characters and the American life on the home front. Its one that makes you laugh at some scenes and crying in the next. It’s one emotional roller coaster of a film and I can sincerely say it’s my all time favorite.

Reach Jessica Pickens at 704-669-3332 or jpickens@shelbystar.com. Follow on Twitter at @StarJPickens and at her film blog, Comet Over Hollywood at www.cometoverhollywood.com